Phoenix considers bike-share program

by Eugene Scott - Oct. 3, 2012 12:00 AMThe Republic | azcentral.com

Phoenix hopes to soon join other major U.S. cities that provide rentable bicycles.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton recently announced that the city had taken its first steps toward instituting a bike share, a program through which people could rent bicycles from the city. The city would station bicycles at racks throughout Phoenix. Riders could return them at any of the program's racks.

Stanton made the announcement on Friday at Pedal Craft, an event that drew hundreds of bicycle enthusiasts to downtown Phoenix to promote the community's urban bike culture.

"This has been a project that I have been working on for over two years," said Jonce Walker, co-founder of Pedal Craft. "When the mayor's office announced that they were going to pursue bike share, I wanted to shed tears of joy. I was that happy."

Jeff Stapleton, senior policy adviser to the mayor, said the system would provide residents traveling short distances with an affordable option beyond public transit or private vehicles. Use of the program would then reduce "traffic congestion, noise and air pollution," he said.

It's still unclear exactly how Phoenix's system would work.

City officials don't yet know the costs or potential revenue of the program. They also have not determined the rental price for the bikes. Stapleton said a private operator would maintain the bike fleet.

Officials also still need to figure out how many bicycles they need and where they should install the racks.

City staff will present a proposal for the program Tuesday at the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee meeting. Discussions will continue at the Finance, Efficiency, Innovation and Sustainability Subcommittee meeting on Oct. 17.

The city hopes to ask companies that can operate the system to submit proposals by the end of the year.

Previous efforts

This is not the first time Phoenix residents have had access to a bike-share program. In April 1997, the Regional Public Transportation Authority launched the "Purple People Movers," bikes from unclaimed police property and those headed to a landfill. The free bikes were sometimes defective, and people often stole them or never returned them to a rack.

Nearly all of the 60 bikes were missing a month after the program launched. The program's bike racks were eventually removed or repainted.

That will not be the case this time, Stapleton said.

"This program would be much different mostly due to the advances in technology that exist today vs. when this was previously tried," he said. "In addition, we would be utilizing a vendor/private operator who would implement better loss prevention through today's technology. Users are likely going to have to sign up online with a valid debit/credit card before you can rent a bike from a kiosk."

Members of the Valley's sustainability communities have advocated for a bike-share program for years. Some hope to cut the number of cars on the roads for safety and environmental reasons, while others simply want to provide multiple transportation options.

Making Phoenix more bicycle-friendly is key to retaining and attracting talent, advocates say.

"If Phoenix wants to become a city that appeals to the younger Millennial Generation, then I am convinced that it must offer the full multimodal transit package, which includes bike share," said Walker, who is alsoMaricopa County's sustainability manager. "If Phoenix wishes to retain the most educated generation ever, they must offer a pedestrian scale, dynamic and a transit-rich connected city."

The bicycle community also has expressed concerns about safety, with many protesting a shortage of bicycle lanes in downtown Phoenix.

Bicycles were involved in 1.9 percent of national traffic fatalities in 2010. In Arizona, bicycles were involved in 2.5 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Bicycle advocates say they hope Phoenix becomes more bicycle-friendly, which could lead to new safety measures.

"The biggest challenge with bike share will be enticing people to ride on so many streets that have no bicycle infrastructure," said Jeremy Stapleton, director of Synergy Design Lab, an urban-design firm.

"As I've worked to identify and eliminate the reasons why people don't bike in Phoenix, I've found the Number 1 answer is that they don't feel safe, even when bike lanes are provided. This means we'll need to design and build bicycle facilities that allow people to overcome their fear of passing cars."

Other programs

While new to Phoenix, bike shares are already in place in most of the nation's 10 largest cities. Even smaller cities such as Tucson have versions of the program.

The Tucson program is reserved for city employees and is free for riders. The goal is to encourage city workers to drive less and bike more. But fewer than 100 of the city's 5,000 employees use the program's 20 bicycles, said Ann Chanecka, Tucson's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.

"There was a lot of interest the first couple of years, but in the last couple years, we've heard less people (are) using it," she said. "We're just trying to get the program better advertised and more exposure."

Tucson officials are considering launching a citywide program beyond employees to complement the Tucson Modern Streetcar, which is scheduled to open late next year.

"The biggest obstacle is funding," Chanecka said.

"We don't have access to some of the other funding sources other cities have used to fund their programs. But we're really looking for ways to see if it could be successful here."

Phoenix is weighing a program through which people could rent bicycles from the city. A similar program was started in Phoenix in 1997, but nearly all of the 60 bikes vanished a month after the program launched.